And some or all of those 'over the stage' again, appear to have sat in 'the lords room' or 'rooms'.[1] Of such a room we first hear in 1592, when Henslowe, repairing the Rose, paid 10s. 'for sellynge of the Rome ouer the tyerhowsse' and 13s. 'for sellinges my lords Rome'. The entry rather suggests that this was not so much a room for 'lords', as a room primarily reserved for the particular 'lord', under whose patronage the actors played; but however this may be, it was probably available by courtesy for other persons of distinction. The practice of sitting on the stage itself first emerges about 1596.[2] It was general by the seventeenth century, and was apparently most encouraged at the Blackfriars, where it perhaps lent itself best to the structural character of the building.[3] It was known at Paul's, but was
- [Footnote: roome'. Dekker-Wilkins, Jests to Make you Merry (1607, Works, ii. 292),
has a jest of 'one that sat ouer the stage' on a wench in the twopenny room. Farmer-Chetham MS. (seventeenth-century, ed. Grosart, i. 104) has an epigram on Spongus, who 'Plays at Primero over the stage'.]is not on the stage amongst gallants preparing a bespoke Plaudite'.]*
- ↑ Satiromastix (1602), 2612, 'You must forsweare to venter on the stage when your play is ended, and to exchange curtezies and complements with gallants in the Lordes roomes'. The subject is well discussed by Lawrence (i. 29), The Situation of the Lords' Room.
- ↑ Sir J. Davies, Epigrams (prob. < 1596), ep. 28, In Sillam, 'He that
dares take Tobacco on the stage'; ep. 3, In Rufum:
Rufus the Courtier at the theatre
Leauing the best and most conspicuous place,
Doth either to the stage himselfe transfer,
Or through a grate doth show his doubtful face,
For that the clamorous frie of Innes of court
Filles vp the priuate roomes of greater prise:
And such a place where all may haue resort
He in his singularitie doth despise.It is not, I think, sitting on the stage that is satirized in J. Hall, Virgedemiarum (1597), i. 3, but a performance by illiterate amateurs on a 'hired Stage'.
- ↑ C. Revels (1601), ind. 138:
'3. Child . . . Here I enter.
1. What, vpon the stage too?
2. Yes: and I step forth like one of the children, and ask you, Would
you have a Stool, Sir?
3. A Stoole Boy?
2. I Sir, if you'le giue me sixe Pence, I'le fetch you one.
3. For what I pray thee? what shall I doe with it?
2. O God Sir! will you betraye your Ignorance so much? why, throne
your selfe in state on the stage, as other Gentlemen vse Sir';
All Fools (c. 1604), prol. 30:
if our other audience see
You on the stage depart before we end,
Our wits go with you all and we are fools.Isle of Gulls (1606), ind., 'But come boy, furnish us with stools'. . . . 'He [the author
